In conventional applying apparatus for applying continuous stratified films to a base plate for a printed circuit board, support plates for upper and lower film feed members, which are main vacuum suction plates, are coupled thereto with straight movement guide rails and coupled to the body of the apparatus by a rack-and-pinion arrangement so that the film feed members are synchronized together in the mutual opening and closing movement (i.e., moving toward or away from each other) thereof. The upper and lower film feed members are fitted on the straight movement guide rails on the support plates so that the film feed members are moved toward each other to feed the continuous stratified films from film rollers to the applying section of the apparatus, and then moved away from each other. A system relating to the film feed members is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application (OPI No. 117488/88 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published application").
In the conventional system mentioned above, the straight movement guide rails are disposed at both ends of the film feed members and the support plates, and moving forces are applied to the central portions of the film feed members. However, the right and left portions of each of the film feed members and the support plates are not precisely synchronized with each other during the movement thereof. Hence, if the width of the continuous stratified films is large, the films are wrinkled when being applied under heat and pressure to the base plate. This is a problem.
Also, in the case where the films are simultaneously laminated on both sides of the base plate, it is necessary to provide a complicated synchronism mechanism for synchronizing the supply operations of the upper and lower film supplying devices. In the case where the operations of the upper and lower film supplying devices are not well synchronized, wrinkles would be generated in the films.
The present invention was designed to solve this and other problems of the conventional systems. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system in which upper and lower film feed members are moved up and down synchronously together.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system in which the constitution of a vertical movement synchronization mechanism for upper and lower film feed members is simplified.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system in which it is unlikely that air bubbles will be generated between a film and a base plate is unlikely, and that the film will be wrinkled during the application to the base plate.